The present invention generally concerns an agricultural sub-soiling ripper apparatus and is more particularly directed to an improved automatic ripper reset mechanism.
In prior art sub-soiling ripper devices, the ripper head is pivotably attached at a portion thereof to a frame and the front portion of the ripper head is typically secured by means of a shear pin to the frame. When the downwardly extending and sub-soiling ripper blade strikes an obstruction during tilling, the shear pin breaks and the sub-soiling ripper blade swings backwardly to prevent damage to the frame. In such devices, it has been necessary for the farmer then to raise the level of the ripper apparatus frame and to manually swing the ripper blade forward for insertion of a new shear pin to secure the ripper blade in ripping functional position. This type of apparatus has necessitated a relatively great amount of manual labor on the part of the farmer, with a resultant decrease in agricultural efficiency and in profit.
The attempts that have been made to resolve this problem have generally been less than optimal in the stability of their engineering design and construction whereby the problem of inefficiency is further aggravated.
Accordingly, it is a primary object of the improved automatic ripper reset mechanism of the present invention to overcome these and other deficiencies of the prior art by providing the present invention as disclosed and claimed hereinbelow.